


Dead and Buried

by damerey_knows



Series: Damerey One Shots 2018 [9]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-16 09:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16083497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damerey_knows/pseuds/damerey_knows
Summary: For the prompt:“They told you I was dead?”“Dead and Buried”“Well, that’s when you should’ve figured out they were lying. Everyone knows I want to be cremated.”“Why would I know that?”





	Dead and Buried

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I hope you like this. I was debating ideas for what to write and so I sent [Draco_sollicitus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus) three options (two fluffy and one angst) and she picked the angst fic. I'll probably come back and do the other two if you want me to later this week or next. 
> 
> Hope you like it <3

Rey staggered as she looked through the viewport on the Supreme Leader’s ship. She’d come here in a last ditch effort to unseat the newest Supreme Leader. Kylo Ren had progressed beyond Ben Solo, Rey knew that, she had known that ever since she’d left him on Crait, but she still had some hope that one shred of human empathy would return long enough for him to stop his most recent attacks on Mandalore. The weapon they were using had been developed and destroyed during the Clone Wars and was rumored to target only a specific alloy forged into Mandalorian armor. Poe had gone to the surface of Mandalore to provide whatever assistance he could and destroy the weapon if possible, but Rey was more worried than anything now as she watched the Supreme Leader give the order to fire upon the capital city of Sundari.

“No!” she cried, her emotions getting the better of her as she lashed out against Kylo’s hold over her, her movements desperate and unfocused. “You can’t! Mandalore hasn’t taken sides in this! You can’t just attack them without provocation!”

Kylo Ren ignored her cries as he waved a Stormtrooper over to lock her arms in Force suppressant cuffs. Rey could feel the universe around her fade to a distant hum, muted enormously by the cuffs. She could just barely feel the throb of the people down on Mandalore’s surface, their signatures like an aftertaste in her mouth. Even Poe’s bright light was lost to the cloud of lifelessness that descended around Rey.

“I will not be disobeyed, scavenger,” Kylo said, looking at her with cold cruelty. “If you will not join me, I will just have to find other uses for you.” He nodded to the Stormtroopers, who gripped her arms and lifted her to the viewport. “Now, watch as I destroy the proud legacy of Mandalore.”

Rey shrieked as she saw a beam of high energy build on the _Vader II_ ’s sister ship and launch towards the city far below. She thrashed against the restraints, trying desperately to reach out to Kylo, to force him to stand down.

Slowly, Rey felt the Force signature of those in Sundari blink out, one by one. Gasping, her knees buckled, her arms almost pulled from their sockets as the Stormtroopers kept her upright.

Distantly she heard a cold, hard laugh and footsteps drawing nearer. Rey felt a gloved hand tip her chin up she looked into the uncaring face of Kylo Ren. “You will, in time, come to understand that I was right, and you will accept this.” Releasing her, Kylo gestured to the Stormtroopers, issuing commands that were lost under the ringing in her ears.

_Poe,_ she thought. _All those people on Mandalore. How could he? How was this balance?_ The thoughts swirled in her head, clouded by both shock and the damn cuffs. Desperately she tried to reach out to the Force, to break through the cuff’s power over her, but she was met with nothing more than a screaming void that threatened to drain her spirit.

_Poe._ All the things she hadn’t said to him. All the things she knew she felt for him sat heavy on her shoulders, pressed upon her chest, and threatened to steal her breath.

The Stormtroopers carried her out of the throne room and down the hall into an interrogation cell. They strapped her to a chair, the same damn chair they had put her on on Starkiller Base. This one was slightly different though, it had been modified to accommodate her Force abilities. Rey stared up at the metal ceiling of her cell as the Stormtroopers moved about the room, ensuring her bindings were secure.

She didn’t know how to feel, it hurt too much to think about Poe and the rest of the Mandalorians. Poe had been sent there while she came here. Rey was supposed to be the distraction to allow Poe an easy escape from the planet. She was supposed to have been an offer of redemption for Kylo and, if that failed, she was supposed to be the one to take out this ship before it could do any harm.

She had failed. There was no getting around it. She had failed and had failed the Mandalorians. _I failed Poe._ Tears fell down her cheeks in steady streams as she sucked in a shaky breath.

The door to her cell opened and a First Order officer entered. He had a malicious grin on his scarred and tattooed face as his gaze raked over her body, deciding how best to carve her up. He walked over to a small table and picked up one of the larger scalpels. “I do hope,” his voice was callous, and uncaring. “That you will be more cooperative now than you have been.”

“What do you want?” Rey managed in a scratchy voice. “I can’t give you anything I don’t know.”

“We shall see,” the man said, walking up to her. “Now, where should we start?”

Rey took a deep breath as he traced the scalpel down her forearm, hard enough to cut through her arm wraps, but not yet leaving a mark on her skin. “I want to know the current location of the Resistance.”

“I think it’s on this ship, isn’t it?” Rey said, rolling her head to look at her torturer. “Did you check the laundry room?”

The cold smile that crept over the man’s face sent a chill down her spine. He pressed the scalpel to her bicep and began cutting.

Each time he asked a question she responded with a sarcastic remark. Each remark earned her a two inch cut. She now had lacerations all over both arms, her chest, and her legs. She tried to breathe as deeply as she could with the constricting strap around her torso, trying to achieve some meditation, some distance from the pain this man was eliciting all over her skin. He never cut deep enough to permanently injure, he deliberately avoided any major arteries, but he was effective in his execution.

“I’ll ask you again,” he said after what felt like hours of this torment. “What were your plans on Mandalore?”

“Wanted to start a Varos farm,” Rey gasped. “Heard the soil was great for it.”

The interrogator was interrupted from carving another cut into her shoulder when the door hissed open and Kylo Ren stepped through.

“I think that will do for now, Major Terex. Let’s see how well she does when she finds out that Commander Poe Dameron was in Sundari when we fired upon the city. Your friend is dead and buried under the rubble of Mandalore while our weapons are still operational.” He loomed over her, leering down at where she lay. “How does that feel, sweetheart, knowing that your friends have died for nothing.”  

Rey’s breathing came in short, hard bursts. Hearing this cretin calling her ‘Sweetheart’ made her feel like they’d put worms under her skin. He disgusted her. He was reveling in her misery and grief. Rey felt her rage turn icy cold.

“Now let’s see if you’ll be more cooperative this time,” Kylo Ren said, reaching a hand up to her head. “Tell me where the Resistance base is.”

Rey could feel him prodding at the edges of her mind, stronger than he had done before, but she was stronger now too. She wasn’t the sad, lonely scavenger he’d met two years ago. She was well on her way to becoming one of the strongest Jedi in recorded history. His little parlor trick wouldn’t work so well this time. She could feel his struggle to get into her mind. His frustration, his expectations of weakness given her grief, his anger.

“There is no Resistance,” Rey said calmly, forcing his reaching thoughts from her mind. “The Resistance died on Crait.”

“Where is Leia Organa?” he demanded, almost shouting in her face.

“I don’t know where your mother is, but she misses her son.”

Kylo’s roar of outrage sent the two Stormtroopers behind her stumbling back a step. He leaned over her, his nose an inch away from her face. “You stupid little brat, don’t you know your Rebellion heroes are nothing more than frauds? Don’t you know that Leia Organa is a cold, uncaring woman who allowed heinous atrocities to happen in the name of ‘peace’?”

Rey stared at him, his anger showing his hand. “Your mother is one of the few left in this galaxy who still has hope for her son to return. Your mother gave you everything she could, while trying to rebuild The Republic with the weight of everyone’s expectations on her alone. You had a family and you had friends and you had a good life and you threw it all away because it wasn’t enough?” Rey scoffed. “The final deeds of Darth Vader were open rebellion against the Emperor to save his son, your uncle. Darth Vader’s descent into madness and the Dark Side began with the fear that he would lose his wife and children the same way he lost his mother. You parade around in an oxygen mask and a voice modulator and a cloak and _think_ you are his heir. You are nothing more than a child in a mask and mock the tragedy that was his life. You dishonor his very memory.”

Rey could see she’d touched on a nerve. Her head slammed back into the chair as Kylo Ren stormed out of the room, commanding Terex to follow him.

Rey breathed deeply, trying to steady her heartbeats. She didn’t know where all that information about Vader had come from, but she was positive it was accurate. She could feel the blood from her cuts cooling on her skin, beginning to scab over as she lay there.

Vaguely, in the corner of her eye, Rey thought she saw a bluish shimmer. She could feel the Force pulling at her, prompting her to escape, to pull herself free of the cuffs and reconnect with it.

She took a deep breath, focusing on the instructions, trying to break through the Force Dampeners on her wrists.

“What are you doing, Jedi?” one of her Stormtrooper guards demanded, stepping into her line of vision.

Feeling a slim golden thread of the Force sneak through the cuffs, Rey reached out to his mind. “You will release my shackles.”

“I will release your shackles,” he repeated in a monotonous tone, reaching for a switch on the side of the chair.

“What are you doing!?” the other Stormtrooper demanded, but it was already too late. Rey’s left hand was free. Quick as a whip she snatched the first Stormtrooper’s weapon from him and shot the second in the shoulder.

“What?” The first Stormtrooper mumbled, looking down at his companion, who was on the ground gripping his shoulder.

Rey used his moment of distraction to switch the weapon to stun and shot both the Stormtroopers, leaving them in heaps on the floor. Using her free hand to undo the other restraints, Rey jumped down from the cursed chair and darted to the door.

Shaking off the lingering wrong feeling of disconnect, Rey reached out with the Force, feeling for the Kyber Crystal in her Saberstaff. She’d gone through too much to make that staff to leave it here as Kylo Ren’s trophy.

Feeling it in an upper room, Rey found the nearest Turbolift shaft and forced the doors open. Sticking her head through it she stared down and then up, feeling the rush of air moving rapidly as the lift moved hundred of feet below her. Glancing to the side she saw a ladder embedded in the side of the shaft. Rey took a step back, hooking the blaster onto her belt before leaping through the shaft and grabbed the rungs of the ladder. She began to climb as she felt the elevator moving below her, going up a few then down then up a few more then down. A few times she’d felt the elevator racing to meet her and she’d managed to leap through the doorway of the next floor or a maintenance alcove. The higher she went the less frequent this happened.

When she finally reached the floor where she felt the Kyber of her saberstaff she breathed a sigh of relief. Kylo Ren was somewhere else on the ship, she was in the Supreme Leader’s chambers.

Looking around, Rey headed to a side room, she found herself in an office of sorts. A large set of shelves lined one wall and a massive black desk took up the middle of the room. Rey walked around the desk, searching for the lightsaber, but also looking at the datapads strewn haphazardly across the desk. She knew she couldn’t stay here long, but these datapads had information on the First Order’s movements, she could not deny their value.

Opening the drawers of of the desk, Rey found two datatapes. She plugged them into the datapads and began copying the information over. As they loaded she caught sight of a vault to her left. She could hear her Kyber Crystal singing from inside the vault. Rey checked the datapads’ progress before moving to the vault.

Taking a deep breath, Rey reached out to her saberstaff, willing the Kyber Crystal to respond to her. She moved one end of the staff so that it pressed against the door, then she ignited it, carving a circle out of the four inch thick durasteel door. Deactivating the saber, Rey pulled with the Force and the durasteel circle slid out of the door and fell to the carpeted ground with a soft thump.

She reached through the sizzling hole and pulled out her saberstaff. Sighing with relief, Rey turned back to the desk and collected the datatapes before making her way out of the room and back to the Turbolift.

She met a few Stormtroopers on her way out of the Supreme Leader’s chambers, but she made them fall asleep easily.

Rey climbed back down the turbolift shaft. She tried to remember which level the hangar was on. She was pretty sure it was on level twenty-three but she could be wrong. What she wouldn’t give to have BB-8 with her, or Poe. Rey felt her heart throb painfully as she thought of Poe. She couldn’t focus on that now. _Get off this floating deathtrap then mourn,_ a voice not unlike Poe’s whispered in the back of her mind. She raced down the hall, calmly avoiding the most densely populated corridors.

“I think the prisoner went this way,” she heard the voice of a Stormtrooper say from a corridor she’d just passed through.

“Shit,” she muttered as she darted down the nearest hall and almost ran into an officer.

“Rey!” the officer gasped.

Rey’s eyes focused on the face in front of her. “Rose?” she whispered, before glancing over her shoulder and dragging her into a side closet. “Rose, what are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you of course,” Rose said as if it were obvious. Rose reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a comms unit. “Finn, R2, I found Rey, rendezvous back at the ship.”

“Finn and R2 are here, too?”

“Yeah,” Rose said, quickly looking Rey over. “Jeez, you look like hell.”

Rey gasped out a small laugh. “It is what it is.”

Rose looked at her long and hard for a moment before shaking her head and focusing on her mission once more. “The transport we took to get here is in the hangar on this level, think you can make it that far?”

Rey rolled her eyes at Rose. “I’ll be fine, lets go.”

Rose checked the coast before they both strode out of the closet and walked down the hall at a brisk pace. The few soldiers they encountered responded well to Rey’s suggestion of a nap. They made it to the hangar in record time.

Just as they were making their way around the edge of the hangar, Rey noticed the tell tale sounds of fighting coming from the other side of the hangar. Glancing over she saw a sprinting Finn and a shrieking R2-D2 entering the hangar, Stormtroopers hot on their heels.

“Damn,” Rey cursed under her breath. “Rose get the ship ready to take off, I’ll get Finn.”

Rose didn’t hesitate before sprinting to the awaiting ship. Rey ignited her saberstaff and ran to meet Finn.

She deflected as many shots as she could manage, reaching out with the force to seal the doors onto the hangar, preventing more soldiers from entering.

Finn drew level with her. “Good to see you again!” he called, leveling his blaster at a Stormtrooper.

“Get to the ship!” Rey called back, deflecting two blaster bolts aimed at her chest.

Finn started running again, and as soon as he was a few feet behind her, Rey turned to run as well.

They made it back onto the ship quickly, and Rose took off the moment Rey’s feet landed on the ramp. Turning the ship smoothly, R2 input the calculations before Rose made the jump to hyperspace.

Rey collapsed on the ground behind the pilot’s chairs. All the adrenaline in her system had worn her out. Finn lifted her up and carried her to the nearest bunk. He disappeared for a moment and came back with a medpack and began tending to her wounds.

“The mission,” Rey started. “Did you hear back about the mission?”

Finn grimaced. “We’ve been dark for the last couple of hours, we haven’t heard anything other than what the Order has been saying.”

Rey sighed, wincing slightly at the mild sting of bacta on her cuts.

When Finn had finished with her injuries he ordered her to rest until they reached the Rebel base on Utapau.

Rey didn't put up much of a fight. Closing her eyes, she fell into a fitful sleep, dreams of a certain pilot swimming before her eyes.

* * *

It had been three days. Three days since they'd escaped from the First Order. Three days since Sundari was destroyed. Three days since they'd heard anything about their missing friends.

Rey was walking aimlessly down the corridor towards Central Command with an older woman. The woman had short hair that was colored in a gradient from pink to blue. She had told Rey she was Sabine Wren, and Rey had startled at the name. “The Artist?” she had asked in amazement. “You’re the one who stole a TIE-fighter and painted it a bunch of crazy colors and flew it into an Imperial base?”

Sabine laughed at that. “Well I didn’t do it alone. Ezra and Zeb were the ones who stole the TIE, I did the rest,” she’d said, a fond smile at the thought of her friends. Rey wanted to meet Ezra, he could be the only person left who was trained by the original Jedi. She would be honored if she could learn from him as well. Ezra and Ahsoka, two people Rey wanted to meet more than anything. Hearing Sabine talking about them almost made Rey forget her misery for a moment, almost. She hoped she could do the same for Sabine.

Sabine had come to Utapau after news of the destruction on Mandalore had been broadcast by the First Order all around the galaxy. She was well into her fifties at this point, but Rey had seen her training with some of the cadets and she threw them all around like they were toys as she flew around on her jetpack and knew she was worth the moniker the remnants of the Empire said with a touch of fear. Now, Sabine was here to help with the fight for Mandalore, the fight for her homeland, and finally bring an end to the war she and Leia had fought all those years ago.

Leia had been thrilled with the datatapes Rey had managed to steal and was working with some of her best slicers to decipher what the files said.

Rey still felt like a cloud was surrounding her, leeching the life right out of her. Everyone was trying to find out the details of what had happened on Mandalore, what had happened to their friends down below. What had happened to Poe and BB-8.

Rey and Sabine reached Command and stepped through the doors. Leia was standing over a meeting table covered with star charts and diagrams. She looked up as they stepped closer and shook her head slightly, already knowing the question Rey had come to ask.

Rey took a deep breath and sank down in the nearest chair. She let Sabine and Leia’s conversation bounce off her, she heard the words but couldn't find any meaning to them. Rey was trying to find the hope in this night, the light in this dark, but she wasn't sure where to look. Poe had always been the one to find humor and laughter everywhere he looked. Poe was the one who had smiled when she ached. Rey wrapped her arms around her stomach and squeezed tight, as if she could hold herself together.

Just then a tech called out to Leia. “General, I've got an incoming transmission from a Mandalorian transport in our atmosphere.”

Leia glanced up from her charts. “Patch them through, Connix.”

“Hello! This is Poe Dameron hailing any Rebellion leadership. Come in Rebel leadership.”

Rey's heart skipped a beat. He sounded breathless, the way he usually did while flying, but she couldn't tell if he was injured.

“Poe! Thank the Force you're alive, we've been worried sick,” Leia said, the relief evident in her voice. “What happened?”

“I'll tell you when we land, I've got a few injured passengers on this transport, requesting permission to land,” Poe said, his voice distorted slightly by the crackle of static.

“Granted,”Leia responded, gesturing to Connix to give him the clearance codes.

“Thank you, General. See you soon.” Poe's voice was lighter, as if he was smiling.

Rey hadn't noticed when she'd stood up, but she realized now that she was holding onto the edge of the conference table with a white knuckled grip.

Leia looked up at her, then glanced at Sabine with a smile. “Come on,” Sabine said with a relieved laugh. “Lets go get our guys.”

Rey was out the door before she could fully register Sabine’s words, dragging her along as they raced along the corridor to the hangar where Poe was expected to dock.

Just as she reached the hangar she heard a ship hitting atmo above her. She stood at their dock, her leg bouncing impatiently as she watched the ship pull in, Sabine at her side.

There was a slight hiss of hydraulics as the door lowered. Rey could see some Mandalorians in the back, most were wounded in some way, some had broken limbs and serious burns, others only scrapes and bruises.

“Tristan!” Sabine called running forward to meet the man who was being half carried half dragged off the ship by another Mandalorian. “Tristain, what happened? Who else survived?” her questions kept coming but Rey ignored them, leaning around the disembarking Mandalorians to look for her pilot. The med team swarmed around her, rushing up the ramp to help the injured off the ship. Rey stood rooted in place, waiting.

BB-8 appeared in the doorway. Catching sight of her, the little droid raced down the ramp to her, babbling its excitement at seeing her again. Rey knelt down and threw her arms around BB-8, a small smile tugging at her mouth. “I'm so happy to see you too, BB. I'm glad you're safe.”

BB-8 thrilled and wobbled happily.

“Hi,” a voice said softly above her.

Rey looked up from the droid to see Poe standing there, looking completely uninjured. Rey launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

“Where have you been? I was so worried,” she demanded.

Poe let out a relieved laugh. “Oh, you know, just running from bucketheads, saving the day, that sort of thing.”

“They said you died, they - they said you died when they fired on Sundari,” Rey whispered into his neck. She felt that if she spoke any louder she would devolve into a puddle.

“They told you I was dead?” he asked, bemusedly.

“Dead and buried.”

“Well that's when you should've figured out they were lying. Everyone knows I want to be cremated.”

“Why would I know that?” she demanded, pulling back to look him in the eyes. “Why in the name of the Force would I know you wanted to be cremated? You scared me so much.” She smacked her hand against his chest, drawing another chuckle from him.

“I know, Sunshine, I know. I'm sorry.” He pulled her back to his chest and burying his nose in her hair. “I'm just so happy to be back here with you.”

Rey’s arms tightened around him for a long moment, just reveling in his embrace, drinking in the scent of ozone and engine grease. “Poe?” she asked.

He pulled back slightly to look at her face. “Yes?”

Rey studied his face for a long moment, chewing on her bottom lip. She saw the way his eyes were drawn to it, could see the slight darkening of his eyes. Taking a breath, she leaned up and planted a kiss on his mouth. Rey felt his moment of surprise before he sunk into the kiss, one hand resting on her hip, the other tangling in her hair.

After a long moment, or maybe it was several weeks, they broke apart to the sound of hooting and clapping. Turning to the side, Rey saw Finn, Rose, Sabine, and half of Black Squadron cheering them on.

Letting out an uncharacteristic giggle Rey buried her face in Poe's collar again, feeling his laughter rumble in his chest.

“C’mon,” he said as he released all but her hand. “I need to go make my report to Leia.”

Rey smiled and walked arm and arm with Poe out of the hangar to the continued hooting of their friends behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so what did you think? 
> 
> Also, if anyone wants to send me prompts (Fluffy, angsty, comfort, AU, etc.) you can submit them [here :D](http://supremequeenofthenerds.tumblr.com/ask)  
> -Jumana


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